ChangeCampTO

Re-imagine government & citizenship in the age of participation

Are decision makers engaged in the populous and vice versa? ie, a bunch of citizens, politicians, shop owners, etc, get together and say no wal-mart to each other, but it's one guy in zoning that makes the decision of approving the zoning request. Are they engaged? Interested? Understand who to communicate with.

by Lee Dale1/24/2009 3:32:27 PM

There was in fact interest in rural right-wing Ontario in the last election for putting Obama methods in place there - imho contradiction in terms, eh?

by Ellen Michelson1/24/2009 3:32:36 PM

[PEOPLE SWITCH] taking a while; people obviously want to talk to each other in a less focused, more [ahem] social manner

by qasim1/24/2009 3:32:38 PM

Personally feel that in future not too far off, cities could opt to secede from country if they feel that they're never going to get anything out of the deal other being treated as cash cows.

by Christopher King1/24/2009 3:32:45 PM

common thread ENGAGEMENT!!!!!!!!!

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:32:57 PM

Social media is fragmented if you're looking at Facebook, vs Twitter, etc. How do you manage that?Government in general validates and rates telephone vs letter vs email vs petition. On down the line, there is consideration of the level of engagement behind the medium, which ones hold more weight based on the effort and anonymity.

F: fundamental questions: getting people to participate in an interactive govt. non participatory but still transparent. practical considerations when there is TOO much participation, insiders versus outsiders and Perspective.

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:36:22 PM

Maybe it's time to create a National online social forum?

by Christopher King1/24/2009 3:38:15 PM

Moved to group H, reviewing some of their ideas: shifts to collaborative and democratic process, decentralization for local engagement, how do hubs of social networks emerge and what's the impact of those networks, organic leaders, technology including lower-tech media

by skemsley1/24/2009 3:38:29 PM

how do we make govt work : implementation!

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:38:41 PM

practical results

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:38:47 PM

I like the focus on hubs of social networks and how they foster the change agents

by skemsley1/24/2009 3:39:17 PM

More than one person should stay behind @ the idea stations. It would make sharing the ideas easier. #ChangeCamp

Government provides the service but they also have the data. So focused on service, not sharing out data, which leads to feedback, which leads to improved service. How do you find the right balance within budgets when change is required. Cultural, technical, etc.

by Lee Dale1/24/2009 3:40:22 PM

What about interest-group based politics as opposed to locality-based i.e. what would a system look like not based on ridings?

Professor Jones is holding forth: closed networks close themselves in order to maintain power, whereas open social networks empower a greater population. How do you rationalize a network organization with a classic hierarchical organization that you typically find in government? In other words, "take me to your leader" doesn't really work in a social network: we all lead at different times depending on our interests, passion and social capital.

by skemsley1/24/2009 3:41:41 PM

Group L: referendum the game.

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:41:56 PM

L:flow chart, structures of government. what is democracy. will of the people , translation to public policy,

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:43:00 PM

informed and aroused.

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:43:05 PM

Someone becomes a leader in a social network because of the people who connect to them. You need to leverage your social network, and take advantage of the momentum of energy/ideas in the network.

by skemsley1/24/2009 3:43:11 PM

L:motivation to become engaged and aroused, in essence this is a basic lesson on what is govt. and democracy.

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:43:57 PM

ELECTIONS: antique voting systems. broken telephone, how do we use electronic tools, to fix or bypass the problem.promoting electoral reform, feeding into mainstream media,.MORE CHANNELS TO FUEL DISCUSSION.

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:44:58 PM

group L: why you are here: we want to create chanels to engage people

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:45:17 PM

Is anyone in the government even participating in this ChangeCamp forum?

Now we're circulating, to hear what other groups did. I feel privileged to be a blogger - we bloggers volunteered & the organizers were very welcoming.

by Ellen Michelson1/24/2009 3:47:05 PM

How to bring participation into a representative system of government? It's not enough to just vote and forget about it, there needs to be other ways for citizens to participate in government and community more than once every election.

by skemsley1/24/2009 3:47:11 PM

Access to data is one key part: if the city (or other government levels) just open up their data to public access, allow for that data to be mashed up by anyone else. The recent commitment to open TTC data for Google Transit is a good start, but we need a lot more of this. It needs to be the norm rather than the exception.

One participant's take-away msg so far - if we are going to get govs to be more involved in these participatory ways, there will be errors, so we will have to develop tolerance for that. Yes, of course, I am thinking, but on the other hand - even more government errors? Another excuse for gov mistakes? Not good!

by Ellen Michelson1/24/2009 3:48:44 PM

Mark Raheja: We need to deabstractify the relationship between the citizen and the government.

by Lee Dale1/24/2009 3:48:57 PM

M: there may be a charismatic leader but it may not necessarily engage the entire population.

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:49:24 PM

M: community

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:49:44 PM

m: a tool kit to enact change, feedback mechanisms.

by rochlatinsky1/24/2009 3:50:08 PM

How do we swarm government, overwhelm them with participation to knock the doors down?